The invention is about a method of making inactive ballistic exercise elements and an inactive ballistic element made according to said method's teachings.
It is known that for ballistic element it is intended, in the widest meaning of the word, any object which is launched by fire-arms and also self-propelled objects like for instance missiles or rockets.
It is likewise known that, for exercises and training purpose, inactive ballistic elements without explosive charge are used, which serve only to study the ballistic movement in order to simulate the launch on a target of said ballistic element without the presence of explosive elements.
In the following description, a specific inactive ballistic element will be considered, consisting of an inactive bomb body used for exercises and dropped by aircrafts; however, it is intended that what described hereinafter could be extended to any other kind of inactive bomb body and generally to any inactive ballistic element.
It is known that the aerial bombs nowadays in production substantially reproduce four bomb models, manufactured according to the American standards and respectively identified with the acronyms MK-81-82-83-84.
Said bombs can be of active type, i.e. charged with explosive material, suitable for being used in military operations, or of inactive type, i.e. filled with aggregate, used for training purposes.
In both cases, aerial bombs comprise a bomb body, to which a vane in the rear portion and a cap in the front portion are applied.
Concerning the inactive bomb bodies belonging to the prior art, although in their different specific embodiments, they substantially comprise a main hollow body in which an ogive, disposed in the front portion, and a tail ring, disposed in the rear portion, are present.
Inside the main hollow body an inactive ballast is disposed, consisting of a mixture mainly composed by cement, able to give to the bomb body the same ballistic features of active bomb bodies.
In particular, the main hollow body is manufactured with one or more components, by hot forging of a metal tubular element.
With such manufacture, the main hollow body takes the planned tapered shape able to grant, also by a gradual variation of the main hollow body wall thickness, the required barycentre positioning, moment of inertia and other ballistic features.
The subsequent filling of the main hollow body takes place, as previously mentioned, using a single aggregate, generally a cement mixture which, once solidified, becomes integral with the body, giving it the same weight and ballistic features of the similar active bomb bodies used in military operations. In particular, the main hollow body of inactive bomb bodies is the same used in active bomb bodies, which are different from inactive ones only for the explosive nature of the filling material.
Once completed the filling operation, performed through the opening present in the rear portion of the main hollow body, the latter is closed with a closure bottom flange-shaped screwed on the tail ring.
Housings for the rings for suspending the bomb body to an aircraft are furthermore provided on the outer surface of the bomb body.
However, the hereby described well known bomb bodies have some acknowledged inconveniences.
A first inconvenience is due to the fact that bomb bodies are not recyclable once used, for the impossibility to separate in a cheap way the metallic main hollow body from the filling cement material used to give to the bomb body the same ballistic features of active bombs.
As a consequence, the hereby described well known inactive bomb bodies have to be discharged in proper dumps and/or dedicated sites after their use, with consequent increase of managing costs, impossibility of recycling and reusing the metallic material of which the main hollow body is made and environment pollution.
Another acknowledged inconvenience is related to the technical and constructional complexity and to the considerable time needed to fill the main hollow body using cement aggregates.
In particular the cement material, once loaded inside the main hollow body, should be let solidify for a predetermined time interval.
The present invention intends to solve the aforesaid inconveniences.